In leather tanning operations, it is necessary to quickly dry wet leather. To do this, the wet leather skins are spread out on a metal drying table and the surface of the table is heated from underneath by hot water. To accelerate the drying of the leather, a vacuum chamber having a porous or permeable lower surface is placed on top of the table with the porous surface (typically a stainless steel screen) being positioned against the wet leather. When a vacuum is drawn in the vacuum chamber, this creates a lower pressure area adjacent the leather and induces more rapid vaporization of the water vapor in the leather. In most operations, a leather drying machine may include a number of drying tables, with the underside of each drying table serving a dual function as the vacuum chamber. A typical drying table may be about six inches thick and have a stainless steel top surface and a stainless steel screen on the bottom surface, with a horizontal partition dividing the table into an upper water chamber and a lower vacuum chamber.
The problem with these tables is that the stainless steel screens are extremely expensive. A single stainless steel screen may cost $4,000, and a single drying machine may employ five or more screens. The screens are durable but not infrequently are destroyed by mishandling.
An object of the present invention is to provide a less expensive but effective dryer panel screen for a leather drying machine.